Sexuality & Spirituality
I think I am not unusual to have grown up with a deeply entrenched split between body and spirituality. In our culture this division is expressed as the split between matter and spirit, or, more specifically, between the body’s sexuality and spirituality. It is worth considering whether this is the predisposition of all established religions, or predominantly that of the Judeo-Christian cultures of the West.
While living in the East in the Hindu and Buddhist worlds, it became apparent that within Eastern religions there are two distinct schools. One sees the relationship to the body and matter ideologically as the foundation of suffering and confusion; the other views the body and the elemental energies in nature as fundamental to the vitality of our spiritual life.
These two views exemplify the difference between the exoteric and the esoteric traditions.
Throughout the history of Eastern religions there have been cultural periods of Puritanism that saw the body as something to be overcome, interspersed with times of renaissance when the teachings of yogic practices flourished, focusing upon the vital energy of sexuality and eroticism.
The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra, Rob Preece